Reported in the News Letter on January 16, 1929: Socialists gain two seats in Belfast elections

Published:07:00Saturday 16 January 2016

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The municipal elections in Ulster took place yesterday. In Belfast the polling was not marked by any excitement, but very keen interest was taken in the contests in Cromac, Shankill, and Dock Wards.

In Cromac, Sir Crawford McCullagh, the retiring alderman, who had been nominated for the Lord Mayoralty by the General Purposes Committee of the Corporation, was defeated by Mr W H Alexander, an independent Unionist. The Lord Mayor, Sir William Turner, was successful in Shankill Ward, but the smallness of his majority over Mr Robert Bell caused some surprise.

In Dock Ward, Councillor Midgley, the Socialist leader in the Corporation, defeated Councillor Gray, the official Unionist candidate in the contest for the aldermanship. In Falls Ward, Councillor McAlevey, the Nationalist candidate for the aldermanship, was defeated by a Socialist.

The Socialists thus gain two seats in the Belfast Corporation, one each from the Unionists and Nationalists. In the contested wards in Belfast, 41,292 votes were cast out of 64,031 on the register, a percentage of 64.87.

The results of the elections outside Belfast did not provide any outstanding feature beyond the return of a lady member – Miss Jeannie Violet Douglas – for Banbridge Urban Council for the first time in the history of the township. Eighty per cent of the electorate polled in this contest.

The voting in Enniskillen proceeded on strictly party lines, and the results were very much as anticipated. The utmost goodwill prevailed, and at the close Mr Algeo, the Unionist, and Mr Gillin, Nationalist, the leading members of their parties, walked out of the hall arm-in-arm. The town clerk, Mr A W G Ritchie, acted as returning officer for the 28th successive year.